43 activists detained sending message to Obama

COPENHAGEN -- Police detained 43 people in the Danish capital Friday for public disturbance, some trying to hang a banner on a building along the route that President Barack Obama took to attend an IOC meeting.

Police spokesman Henrik Suhr said the others were detained elsewhere across Copenhagen for similar offenses close to the routes that Obama would take to visit Danish officials after addressing International Olympic Committee members, who will decide where the 2016 Games will be held.

Greenpeace said its activists tried to hang banners to tell Obama he should be in Copenhagen in December, not now. The United Nations is hosting a summit in December in the Danish capital aimed at reaching a global warming treaty.

Those detained include Nordic citizens, as well as German, Italian and Polish nationals, Suhr said.

The conservation group also said more of its activists blocked a coal transport ship off northern Norway on Friday.

In a statement, Greenpeace said it wanted to prevent the "ship MV Pascha from bringing its climate-changing cargo to Europe."

Terje Carlsen, a spokesman for the coal mine on the Norwegian Svalbard Islands, said the company had agreed with the local police to "wait and see what happens" before making any moves against the activists.

"We hope to solve this situation in a peaceful manner," Carlsen said.